Carlos Alcaraz has given his verdict on who is the smartest tennis player currently in the circuit. His pick is Novak Djokovic.
“Right now, I think Novak Djokovic is the guy who is the smartest, the smartest on court. “The player who has the most knowledge of tennis, I think it’s Novak without a doubt,” Alcaraz said after battling his way to a four-set win over Jan-Lennard Struff on the centre court.
He gave his reasons for his choice. “With his experience with everything he has lived on a tennis court and has watched a lot of matches in his career, I think he has the most knowledge of tennis.”
But interestingly when asked if he has spoken to Djokovic about tennis during his multiple interactions, he answered in the negative.
“I’ve talked with Novak many, many times. I’ve watched his matches. I’ve practised with him. I’ve watched his practices as well sometimes. But we have never talked about tennis, about matches, whatever. I prefer to talk with him other things, about life, not about tennis, to be honest,” Alcaraz said.
“So I don’t know how to answer that question, to be honest. Just trying to take some things about his game, the way he practices, the way he plays sometimes in the matches. But I just watch from the outside, not talking with him and asking him some questions about tennis. It’s just about watching his matches because I love watching him playing. I love the times that I practiced with him, just to see how he moves, how he plays, how he practices. I love that. But apart of that, I don’t talk too much with him about tennis.”
Alcaraz had his troubles with his first serve, in this tournament thus far. He did improve it to 65% percentage against Tarvet in the second round, but it slipped down to 58% in the third-round match against Struff. While he won 73% of first serve points and an improved 62% of points on his second serve, the first serve percentage is proving to be a bug bear.
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“Well, I knew at the beginning that it was going to be really difficult. I had to be really focused on every shot, on my serve games, on the return” said Alcaraz on-court. “I think his game suits pretty well to the grass, big serve, approaching to the net as much as he can. I’m just really pleased about everything that I have done today.”
